1. Implementing Global Human Resources
  2. Person Names and Languages

Person Names and Languages

You can define how to display people's names in the application and in which language. You can define whether to display a person's name in the global or the local language.

Person name has two parts, style and format.

Name Styles

The name style determines these things:

  • Which components of a person's name to display. For example, one country may display first name and last name while another may display the middle name too

  • What's the order of display of the components

  • Which components are required and which are optional. For example, title may be optional in some countries.

    The legal employer sets the legislative context for the person record. So, if the legal employer is a Canadian legal entity, the Canadian name style is used. When a country-specific name style doesn't exist, a universal name style (last name, first name, title, and middle names) is used

Note: A person's contacts have the same name style as the person for whom they're contacts.

Name Formats

A name format is an arrangement of the name components.

  • The format is an arrangement of these name components: first name, last name, and title. You can choose from these predefined name formats: Display name, List name, Full name, and Order name.

  • The format can differ based on the display context. For example, in an ordered list of names, last name may appear before first name, but in other contexts first name appears before last name.

Global or Local

The profile option HR: Local or Global Name Format controls whether users see local names or global names. The profile option HR: Local or Global Name Format controls whether users see local names or global names by default. Global names use one name format. Users who manage people across countries may want to see the names displayed consistently so may use global names for example. Users who view or manage persons in a single country may prefer to see local names

Person-Name Languages

Each enterprise has a global-name language. Person names appear in this language by default. When you create a person record, you can define what language to use for the local name. Names appear in this language for users whose HR: Local or Global Name Format profile option value matches the language.

Let's look at an example:

  • The global-name language for the enterprise is American English.

  • You set the local-name language in a person record to Japanese. Users whose HR: Local or Global Name Format profile option is set to Japanese see the person's name in Japanese.

  • All other users (those who are viewing global-format names or whose HR: Local or Global Name Format profile option is set to a value other than Japanese) see the person's name in American English. Users can set preferences to select the language in which they want to see person names displayed in.